I think we all deal with reticence about sex, at least in Western civilizations. In the original meaning of the word “reticence,” we’re reluctant to even speak about it, much less experience it with untainted joy. Today is the first day of Masturbation Month and my thoughts after I masturbated this morning were about how we learn to hide it when we’re kids. While I masturbated, I was doing a lot of very basic positive self-talk about simply loving my penis and loving how good masturbating feels. It always feels like self-care to affirm the fundamental goodness of my body and my sexual expression, specifically because I share the same early negative conditioning.

I think it’s always worth expressing love, not just for others but for ourselves, which seems to be the harder thing for most of us.